burg did not admit lady students, they would have to go all the way to Paris. We shall not oppose this decision of the University, though in neither the speech of Professor Masson nor that of Professor Bennett do we see any very powerful arguments for women becoming physicians. The responsibility, however, now rests with themselves. The legal way is open, and it is for themselves now to consider whether Medicine is a womanly calling. There should be no misunderstanding about one or two points. First, that if ladies are to enter a sphere so difficult and to them somewhat delicate, there can be no plausible reason for excluding them from any other sphere. Professor Masson must reconcile himself to fair professors of Belles Lettres, that may prove serious competitors with the present male monopolists of Rhetoric; and Professor Bennett may find some day the Institutes of Medicine very freely re-arranged by the ladies whom he is so politely introducing to the study of medicine. If ladies may be physicians, then they may be anything. This may he all right; but if so, then woman must not be considered, as hitherto, the complement of man, but as his competitor. How this will relieve our social and economical difficulties or add to the pleasantness of the position of woman is not very clear to us. If women would show their complete equality with men, let them emigrate as freely as men are doing, and give grace and comfort to the life of their fellow-countrymen who have to go abroad, not because they like it, but because there is not room for them at home, and colonization is the destiny of Britons. Let them give themselves to the womanly science of making home-life easy and practicable and pleasant to men.

The action of the University of Edinburgh does not remove the difficulty. It only shifts it. All the objections to women entering the medical profession remain, and have now to be considered by ladies themselves. The process of medical education can not be a very nice one for young ladies under the most favorable auspices, and with classes apart, as, we understand, is to be the arrangement in Edinburgh. It is inconceivable that lady students should pass through a course of medical study in a large medical school without some harm to that delicacy of feeling which has hitherto been one of the most exquisite charms of the female character. And the duties of the

actual practice of Medicine are still less congruous with womanly strength or feeling, or any other female quality. We presume that lady practitioners will have to be unmarried. No married gentleman worthy of his situation wonld like his wife to be a practitioner. And yet how unfit seems a young unmarried lady for the duties of medical practice.

We

Supposing all these objections to women entering the profession of medicine answered, there remains another-Will they be acceptable to the public as medical advisers? This seems very doubtful. It is said they are adapted for practice among women and children. must say that we know of no demand among women generally for lady medical advisers. There are a few ladies just now who seem to think of nothing else than the magnification of their sex, and who propose

to revolutionize society in prosecution of this idea. But they do not represent the general feeling of women. And as far as our observation goes, it tends to show that lady practitioners will not be very acceptable as physicians even to their own sex. Something is to be said for allotting to them the department of midwifery; but even here, we believe, medical men would be preferred, and it is a laborious branch of practice that would be a hard means of livelihood for a delicate unmarried girl. She would doubtless simply come to a friendly arrangement about night-calls with the nearest medical bachelor, and a partnership would soon be arranged. Altogether, we would advise ladies to think twice before they enter the medical profession.-London Lancet, Nov. 6, 1869.

EDITORIAL AND MEDICAL NEWS.

THE Fourth Volume of the Western Journal of Medicine is completed with this issue.

The first number of the Fifth Volume will be in the hands of our readers in a few days. As will be seen by a notice which appears in this issue from the Publishers, some important changes have been made. In the first place, the Journal will be edited by Prof. David W. Yandell and the present Editor. Dr. Yandell's name is familiar to the American profession; the son of an eminent teacher-a teacher who is also one of the best writers Medicine ever had, and whose valuable contributions have enriched the pages of the Journal during a few months past-worthy son of such a sire, he has the intellect, the culture and the large experience which would be invaluable in the editorial conduct of any medical periodical in the world.

In the next place, all relating to the publication of the Journal passes into the hands of that eminent publishing house, John P. Morton & Co., of Louisville. What a load of anxiety and care is lifted from us by this arrangement, no one who has not been placed in similar circumstances can conceive.

Then the Journal will be devoted to Therapeutics, making it the representative of American Medicine in this regard, as the Practitioner, so ably conducted by Dr. Anstie, is of British Medicine. We believe it will meet the wants of our busy practitioners to a degree. that no other journal in the United States does-that it can be made

a necessity to the great mass of intelligent and industrious physicians. The times, so rich in hurrying progress, demand such a journal.

Again: The Journal will be put on the cash basis. The January number will be sent to all old subscribers, but those who do not remit their subscriptions will receive no other numbers. We have lost hundreds of dollars by crediting; we are quite willing to take fifty per cent. for some three thousand dollars of accounts, if any one is anxious to make a speculation! Even were that per centage paid, we would still count our loss in four years at three thousand dollars.

These pecuniary losses make part of the dark side of the picture of our quadrennial labor. And darker still the purposed annoyances, the ingratitude, and downright meanness of a few medical men whose names we are half tempted to hold up for the contempt of honorable gentlemen in the profession.

But we pass these false friends of Medicine by, hoping to have grace to forgive them for intentional and causeless injuries, and knowing that Time, and Truth working therein, will ultimately silence the slanders of coarse ignorance and malevolent ingratitude.

But there is a brighter side. Two years and a half ago the Jour nal had but about three hundred subscribers; it now has more than a thousand. It ranks among its friends some of the best and some of the most celebrated names in the American profession; many of the contributors, especially in Indiana, Ohio and Kentucky, are among the ablest medical men; its contributions we frequently find republished in American and in foreign journals; it has become a permanency in the periodical medical literature of the country. Kind letters of encouragement from men whose good opinions we value highly, have cheered us in the midst of labors that have been by no means trifling; even warm personal friendships have grown out of our editorial position.

While we arrogate no great success, we have faithfully tried to do our duty; as truth and right seemed to us, so we spoke and acted, though more than once urged to live for policy, to enlist the favor of this indifferent one, or silence the tongue of that malevolent, by praising them for work they had not done but might do, for abilities they had not shown but might show, all of which kindly-meant advice seemed to us like the interrogations that follow: "Stranger, does your brother like butter-milk?" "I have got no brother." "But if you had a brother, would he like butter-milk?" Policy may do for those who have no convictions, who float along upon a current of

expediency, and whose opinions change oftener than the moon, so as to suit the views of every one with whom they may be thrown; but such a life is grovelling in the dirt with a muck-rake, careless of the golden crown which awaits manly, up-looking, up-striving endeavor. Temporary success may reward the arts of a policy-man, but there can be no true greatness, no real growth, without personal integrity and conscientious devotion to the Right, and such devotion, in the face of opposi tion, if it need be, not because of any incidental or possible reward, but because it is right. There is a higher court than a little, ephemeral, prejudiced coterie or clique to judge every man, and that is the judgment of the wisest and best, who do not live in the fogs of local prejudice and misrepresentation. There is a higher court than either, that will one day pass upon the lives of each one of us: for these broader, juster, and more enduring judgments let each one fit himself, working out his salvation unto these ends, and not for any perishing purposes and plans of the hour.

And now, with the kindest wishes for the happiness of our readers, happiness here and hereafter, and with heartiest thanks to our many friends for their encouragement and for their contributions, we bespeak their efforts in behalf of the Journal under its new auspices: we know that it will be eminently worthy any efforts they may make. either in writing or procuring subscribers.

THE AMERICAN PRACTITIONER-FORMERLY "WESTERN Journal OF MEDICINE' -A MONTHLY JOURNAL OF MEDICINE AND SURGERYTO BE ISSUED JANUARY 1, 1870, AT LOUISVILLE, KY.-EDITED BY DAVID W. YANDELL, M. D., AND THEOPHILUS PARVIN, M. D.-TERMS, THREE DOLLARS A YEAR, INVARIABLY IN ADVANCE.

It is intended that the Practitioner shall be a first class journal. It will be devoted EXCLUSIVELY to PRACTICAL medicine and Surgery.

It will contain contributions from the leading medical writers of the country.

Its selections will be made from original copies.

Its reviews will aim to extract the practical parts of such works as are noticed.

The aim of the editors will be to conduct the journal in the exclusive interest of the busy practitioner.

The publishers will issue it in the very highest style of the typographical art.

They have a list of TEN THOUSAND physicians living in the West and South.

As an advertising medium it will be unequaled by any medical periodical in the United States.

lishers,

Letters, communications, etc., should be addressed to the pub-
JOHN P. MORTON & Co.,

Louisville, Ky.

WE ARE in receipt of the Washington Chronicle, December 10th, containing an able communication on the proposed murder of Dr. Paul Schoeppe by judicial authority on the 22d inst. Dr. S. is a German, a graduate of feidleberg, and has been practicing his profession at Carlisle, Pa., where his father resided for many years, and had charge of the Lutheran congregation there. A Miss Steinnicke, of Baltimore, a maiden lady sixty-five years of age, visited Carlise in the summer of 1868, suffered from some indisposition, and was under Dr. S.'s professional care. A warm friendship sprang up between them, and upon her return to Baltimore, they corresponded; he was poor, she wealthy, and she advanced money to the Doctor to assist him. In the fall she visited Carlisle again, remaining till her death, which took place on the 25th of January last, she having been taken seriously ill on the day previous. She left her property to Dr. S. A post-mortem examination, made most carelessly, thirteen days after death, and the statement of the chemist, who received two hundred and fifty dollars for his investigation, that he thought he found "faint traces of prussic acid," were the chief ostensible causes of indictment and conviction. Says this contributor to the Chronicle, whom we recognize as an eminent member of the profession and a personal friend:

"The indictment against the Doctor charged him with willfully taking the life of Miss Steinnicke by the administration of poison; and, although not one iota of evidence, from beginning to end, went to sustain this allegation, yet the jury found him guilty of murder as indicted."

The medical press of the country is, we believe, unanimous in its denunciation of this verdict and the proposed execution.

Bearing upon this case we publish the following extracts, the first from the Medical Gazette of December 4th, and the second from the New York Times:

"THE CASE OF DR. SCHOEPPE.-The Governor of Pennsylvania, in the face of the unanimous protest of leading medical societies-in the face of the very testimony given at the trial--has signed the death warrant of Dr. Paul Schoeppe.